The Effort Was Worth It
by SakuraRyuu28
Summary: Inuyasha goes to a lot of trouble and aggrevation for the simplest things.


Title: The Effort Was Worth It

Author: SakuraRyuu

Rating: K

Genre: AU, Comedy, Comfort, Family, Friendship, Romance

Characters: Inuyasha, Kagome, Mrs. Higurashi, Sota

Author's Note: Inuyasha and all characters in this fan fiction are the property of Rumiko Takahashi.

For what seemed like the tenth time Inuyasha threw his right hand up in frustration while his left hand held his current nemesis in place. Flexing his fingers to pop every knuckle his claw-like hand twitched with eagerness to slice this foe into ribbons. Having a sudden change of heart, the snarl on his face was replaced with a scowl as he harrumphed at the package, and hid both hands in the sleeves of his haori.

"Stupid Kagome and her stupid Christmas," he groused. "Why's she always gotta try to make me do this stupid stuff anyway? Sango and Miroku aren't sitting around; missing hair off their ears cause they snatched a piece of tape off their head. And that stupid Shippo would probably love to be sitting in the middle of this pile of wrapping paper, making an even bigger mess than I am just trying to wrap this stupid box." Disgusted, Inuyasha spun his back on the box, and continued to sit in the middle of Mrs. Higurashi's green paper and gold ribbon strewn living room, occasionally flicking an ear that was missing a tuft of fur.

This whole Christmas mess had started once the cold weather had really set in with snow and freezing winds. Kagome came back from her time to explain her school was observing Christmas break, which meant she wouldn't have to be there as often, and she had time to catch up on her homework. Everyone was quite pleased with her revelation considering how cold it had gotten. No one wanted to wander outside unless they absolutely had to, being content to stay huddled around the fire under blankets. Of course Inuyasha was unhappy hearing about how they would be stuck in the village for the next two weeks, and started complaining about his friends being weaklings. Kagome would have none of his nonsense, telling him if he was going to ruin her story he could go outside in the cold by himself, but to make sure he closed the panel securely behind him on the way out. Then she sat down next to the fire to share a blanket with Shippo while she told the story Twas A Night Before Christmas.

Sango and Miroku wanted to know as much about the origins of the story and the Christmas traditions as Kagome knew. Shippo only focused on the part about presents. When Kagome read How the Grinch Stole Christmas Shippo made a comment about the Grinch sounding like Inuyasha, which gave everyone a good laugh. Kagome's enthusiasm for the holiday caught like wildfire, and she had everyone making decorations to hang around Kaede's hut. He was just thankful the activities kept the runt out of his hair.

When Inuyasha went back to Kagome's time her mother pulled her aside and gave him a box with a pretty silver hair comb in it for him to wrap and give to Kagome. Then Mrs. Higurashi gave Inuyasha a roll of green wrapping paper, gold ribbon, tape and scissors, and sent him to the living room to wrap his gift while she finished supper. It all happened so fast he didn't know what to do with himself. He gave a shrug, thinking, "How hard can it be? I've seen people wrap packages lots of times." What he didn't take into consideration was the tape.

Sitting in the middle of the living room floor Inuyasha sat the box in front of him and he supplies to the side. He unrolled the paper and sliced it with the claw on his pointer finger, not giving the scissors a second thought. He put the box in the middle of the paper, wrapped the paper around it, and reached for the bow. He cut a length off the same as he did with the paper, and went to wrap it around and tie it off when Souta came in.

"Hey, Inuyasha, whatcha doin'?"

"What's it look like I'm goin'? I'm wrapping this box for Kagome."

"Well, don't use too much tape or she'll never be able to open it."

"Tape?"

Sota gestured to the spool of clear film. "Yeah, that stuff right there is sticky on the bottom and will keep the wrapping paper and ribbon in place, but if you use too much Kagome can't open the paper. The tape isn't easy to tear."

Inuyasha put the pad of his finger to the underside of the spool, and sure enough, it stuck. As he tried to pull his hand away a long strand of tape followed. Giving his arm a swift yank the spool went crazy, flinging tape all over his clothes. Using his other hand he sliced cleanly through the continuous strand of sticky horror, he threw the dispenser across the room. The further away the better. Redirecting his attention back to the tape he slowly started to wad it up into a ball until he felt a tug on his right ear. Cocking his eyebrow up he tilted his head so slightly to see the strand of tape coming from his head. Giving his tape ball a tug verified it was stuck to the hair on his ear. The ear twitched as if anticipating the abuse that was sure to come. Giving a hard yank the tape came loose, the ear got yanked, and some of its hair was snatched off. Now he was raising his hand in the first of many attempts to use his claws to obliterate the offending box, and everything that went with it. He should have ignored Sota about that spool of hellish stickiness and wrapped Kagome's gift the best way he knew how instead of sulking in the living room with his back to the box.

Steeling his resolve, Inuyasha picked up the box, his sheet of wrapping paper, and his strand of ribbon and went to the well house. He knew out there he would have the time he needed to wrap Kagome's gift without extra any extra input to muck things up. Fifteen minutes later Inuyasha emerged triumphant, ready to put his gift under the tree for Christmas morning. Thank goodness he only had to wait for two days.

Inuyasha was startled from his dozing sleep by Kagome suddenly jumping out of bed and landing, crouched, in front of where he was sitting on the floor at the end of her bed. It was barely sunrise, and they appeared to be the first awake.

"Inuyasha! It's Christmas! Come on! We have to wake everyone else up!" To his amazement Kagome sped through her bedroom door, and he could hear her down the hall waking everyone in her excitement. For someone who wasn't a morning person she had an awful lot of energy today. Standing up Inuyasha tossed her sword on her bed and followed her out into the house.

Reaching the bottom of the staircase Inuyasha had to suppress a laugh as he saw Kagome and Sota sitting cross-legged on opposite sides of the tree. Their legs were bouncing as they sat on their hands, trying to not to touch anything. Mrs. Higurashi came in from the kitchen with a cup of tea in hand, and wished everyone Merry Christmas. Sitting down on the couch she waited for Inuyasha to take a seat next to Kagome, then appointed Sota as Santa. The morning progressed with him passing out gifts that were swiftly divested of their decoration to get to the goodies inside. Finally, it was time for Inuyasha to give Kagome his gift. Blushing furiously he took the box from under the tree and handed it to her.

"Here. I hope you like it." Once she took the box from his hand, Inuyasha quickly stuffed his hands in his sleeves. He watched anxiously as Kagome carefully untied the golden ribbon, and removed the festive, green paper. As her hands worked he became more nervous, worrying if she would like his gift. He may not have picked it out or bought it, but it was a gift from his heart nonetheless. Her gasp made his eyes snap up to her face, and his anxiety skyrocketed.

"Inuyasha! It's beautiful! I've never seen anything like it!" Kagome carefully took the silver comb from its box, wrapped her hair up, and used the comb to pin it in place. "How do I look?" She smiled, practically preening with pride over her new treasure.

"Beautiful." Inuyasha leaned forward and gave Kagome a quick peck on the cheek, before quickly looking away, embarrassment written all over his face. Her smile over a simple, silver comb was the best gift he could have received.


End file.
